Russo-Swedish Wars

1610–1617

...throne, the country was already embroiled in wars with Denmark, Russia, and Poland. As noted above, the war with Denmark was concluded by the Peace of Knäred with some losses for Sweden. The war with Russia was fought more successfully, however, with Swedish armies even reaching Moscow. Russia was thereby forced to agree to the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617, by the terms of which Sweden...

1655–1660

1700–1721

1741–1743

(1743), peace settlement that concluded the Russo-Swedish War of 1741–43 by obliging Sweden to cede a strip of southern Finland to Russia and to become temporarily dependent on Russia. As a result of the Great Northern War (Treaty of Nystad, 1721), Sweden had lost Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, and part of Karelia to Russia. In 1741 Sweden reached a secret understanding (through French...

...They led a most careful foreign policy so as not to provoke Russia. From 1738 to 1765 power passed to the Hats, who made treaties with France in order to obtain subsidies and support against Russia. War with Russia in 1741–43 led to a temporary Russian occupation of Finland and to a further loss of Finnish provinces northwest of St. Petersburg. A war with Prussia in 1757–62 was very...

1788–1790

Anjala League

(1788–89), a conspiracy of Swedish and Finnish army officers that undermined the Swedish war effort in the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–90. Shortly after the outbreak of war, 113 officers in the Finnish town of Anjala dispatched a letter to Empress Catherine II the Great of Russia calling for peace on the basis of the pre-1743 status quo—one favourable to Sweden. Although this...

Gustav III

...rule were not enough to satisfy his critics, so he turned from the frustrations of domestic affairs to an aggressive foreign policy. Taking advantage of Russia’s war with Turkey, he declared war on Russia in 1788, but treasonous activity by the Anjala League, a group of Swedish officers on the Finnish front, along with Denmark’s entry into the war on the side of Russia, worsened his situation....

Sweden

...the “haves” without satisfying the “have nots.” Even his solution to the dilemma was a traditional one—war. After Turkey attacked Russia in 1787, Gustav went to war against Russia in 1788 to recapture the Finnish provinces. The Swedish attack failed, partly because of a conspiracy by noble Swedish officers—the Anjala League—who, during the war,...

1808–1809

Arakcheyev

...Alexander I ascended the throne. Made an inspector general of the artillery in 1803, Arakcheyev reorganized that branch of the army; he then became minister of war (1808), and in 1809, during the Russo-Swedish War of 1808–09, he personally compelled the reluctant Russian forces to cross the frozen Gulf of Finland and make the attack on the Åland Islands that ultimately resulted in...

Gustav IV

...Great Britain. The situation grew more dangerous when, also in 1807, Denmark-Norway declared war on Sweden, thus completely isolating it. Gustav refused to become allied with Russia, and France and Russia attacked Sweden in 1808. The war ended in 1809 with Sweden’s surrender of Finland to Russia. . In these circumstances certain groups of liberal officials and officers in Sweden’s western army...

Sweden

...policy. Of decisive importance was his resolution in 1805 to join the coalition against France. When France and Russia signed the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, Gustav stubbornly accepted war, even with Russia. Denmark, which had sided with France in October 1807, declared war against Sweden in 1808. England, at the moment busy in Spain, could offer little help. Sweden thus became politically...